Process for cracking petroleum oil



Drama@ G. EGLOFF E1' AL. y

PRQCESS ROR CRACKING PETROLEUM OIL Aug. 25,A 1925.

Flid Aug.l 20, 1920 Patented Aug. 25, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. y

GUSTAV EGLOFF AND HARRY P. BENNER, OF INDEPENDENCE, KANSAS, ASSIGNORS T0 UNIVERSAL OIL PRODUCTS COMPANY, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION 0F SOUTH DAKOTA.

PROCESS FOR CRACKING PETROLEUM OIL.

Application led August 20, 1920. Serial No. 404,896.

To all 'whom t may concern.'

Be it known that we, GUs'rAv EGLOFF and HARRY P. BENNER, citizens of the United States, and residing in the city of Independence, county of Montgomery, and State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes for Cracking Petroleum Oil.

This invention relates to improvements in process for cracking petroleum oil.

This invention relates to improvements in process for cracking etroleum oil, and refers more particular y to a process for cracking relatively heavy emulsied oils, as for example, emulsified Mexican crudes, California crudes or bottom settlings. Certain diiiiculties are experienced in the cracking of heavy emulsltied oils, particularly that caused by foaming over of the contents of the still, when the oil is heated in the still in the ordinary way. The oil in the bottom of the still becomes heated rst, and this heavy asphaltic oil, acting more or less as an insulator, results in the upper portion of the oil being heated slowly. The result is that before the upper portion of the oil has reached a vaporizing temperature2 the water in the lower portion is exploslvely converted into steam, and in effect lifts or throws the unconverted upper liquid ortion out of the still, or, in other words, oams over.

The object of the present invention is to overcome this diiculty, and further, to provide a novel and effective method of cracking these heavy emulsifying oils.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a view partly in vertical section and partly side elevation of our apparatus. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken on lines A-A of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, 1 designates the furnace provided with burner 2, grate 3, heating tubes or Hue tubes 4, which are connected to the stack 5. These heating tubes 4 extend through the upper part of the cylindrical shell or still 6. This still 6 is provided with man hole plates 7 and liquid draw ofi' 8, controlled by valve 9. The lower part of the still is insulated as shown at 10. The oil is continuously or intermittently fed to the still 6 by means of charging line 11, and charging pump 12, connected to any suitable source of supply.

The pump 12 is provided with the usual valves 13 and 14 as shown. The arrange- 55 ment is such that the liquid level of the oil is maintained substantially at the level of the heating tubes. The vapors pass out of the still through the vapor outlet 15, in which is interposed valve 16. The vapor outlet 15 connects to dephlegmator 17. The upper part of the latter is connected to the water condenser coil 18 through pipe 19, in which is interposed throttle valve 20. The condenser coil 18 in .turn leads to the re-' ceiver 21, which receiver has liquid draw off pipe 22, provided with control valve 23 and gas outlet pipe 24, provided with control valve 25. It also has liquid level gauge 26 and pressure gauge 27. The reiux con- 70 densate passes out of the dephlegmator through line 28 to any suitable supply storage tank. This line is controlled by valve 29. In order to revent the re-lux condensate from falling ack into pipe 15, the upper end of the latter is provided with a spaced cap member 30.

The process may be operated as follows: The still may be charged to the level of the heating tubes with bottom settlings of a mid-continent crude petroleum of 15.2 de'- grees Baum gravity, containing 18% of water in an emulsiiied condition. This oil was a particularly ditlicult oil to crack even without its water content, and in fact had 86 a very large carbon content. Moreover, this oil foamed badly in atmospheric distillation. The upper surface of the oil in the still was maintained at an oil temperature of about 720 deg. F. under a pressure to and through v90 the condenser of about 6G pounds per s uare inch. The temperature at the top o the dephlegmator was about 400 deg. F. so that none of the steam condensed in the dephlegmator. The oil and water collected in the'95 receiver and stratied by gravity. 45% of pressure distillate was obtained of 53 de ees N Baume gravity. This pressure distillate upon redistillation gave 27% of 58 degrees Baum gravity gasoline on the basis of the bottom settlings treated without the water', content. In other words, 27% of the origi nal oil content of the charge was converted into gasoline of the gravity given. It may also be noted that the rcux condensate which was collected was itself capable of further cracking and was separately collected.

The above iigures were obtained from actually carrying out the process herein described.

The process may be operated either as a batch or continuous process, and, if desired, differential pressure may be maintained in the system by regulatin the valves 16, 20, 23 and 25. In other wor s, distillation might take place at 100 pounds pressure, dephlegmation 50 pounds to atmospheric pressure and iinal condensation at 25 pounds to atmospheric pressure.

We claim as our invention:

1. A process of cracking emulsied petroleum oils, consisting in vaporizing such oil under suiicient temperature and pressure to cause cracking of said oil, subjecting the oil to surface heating alone to prevent undue foaming; removing and collecting and condensing the vapors, first subjecting said vapors to a reflux condensation and inde endently separating and collecting the re ux condensate.

2. The process of cracking emulsified petroleum 011, comprising subjecting the oil to surface heating alone to vaporize the same at a cracking temperature and pressure, in

condensing and collecting the vapors pro- K 

